Spring break a week away!

((Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden ~ Karen Winters)

Looking so forward to "down time" next week. Since Geoff 's college already enjoyed their break (and beautiful weather, I might add) I have no plans other than takin' it easy and a playin' a little catch up here and there. A stroll in the botanic garden, a day trip to a museum perhaps; it's nice to have very little on your plate once in awhile.

B-day planning

It's time to plan the annual B-day celebration for our daughter, Xandie. Our school district's spring break usually butts up, one side or the other, to Easter weekend and so it's always a hard choice to decide which day her party should actually be. We've bitten the bullet and reserved a date along with 2 hours at one of her favorite pottery places. Naturally this meant we spent a good part of the weekend designing an invitation,  deciding on a "theme" and buying party favors / bags. I think we'll be ready...

We have a  little saying, "you were born on Passover and came home on Easter", to remember which day of the week she was born;  as far as the better known saying, "Saturday's child works hard for a living" ~ we'll have to see about that one.

Music filing

I spent a few hours last night trying to re-file stacks of sheet music pulled from my private collection last semester. In addition to two levels of string classes (select 6-8 pieces and use 3-4) and my private students,  I also often fish-out requests for other teachers and friends. Then everything gets thrown in the "re-file box" until nothing more will fit. Now have two boxes worth and need to find a quiet day when I can work uninterrupted to put my music library back in order... until the end of the school year anyway.

NIMBY fight ... a chance at winning!

Seems the 7-11 corner store controversy is at a stalemate momentarily.

NEWS UPDATE: The Claremont Courier
"There will be no 7-Eleven at the corner of Mills Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. The business applicant withdrew their appeal on an earlier Planning Commission decision to deny them a conditional use permit. By withdrawing the appeal, the commission decision now stands. The city council was scheduled to hear the appeal at tonight's city council meeting. Dozens of residents were planning to attend the meeting to voice their opposition to the proposed business. The item has now been pulled from the agenda."


Now we're back to square one; who and what new businesses will move in and will they have a good chance to "make a go" at it?

First monday of spring

It's Monday and as usual I've got my to-do list of tasks to start, continue and complete today. First off was getting the bass to the jr. high with a wheel in its pocket (field trip to orchestra festival this week and Xandie has to transport "Count Bassie" on her own). Then over to the D.O. to finish up the second semester copying spree for afterschool string classes and then get music delivered to the other instructors (along with field trip packets to see the LA Phil next month). Now that I'm back I need to sort through all the other pending business on my desk (which is actually a seldom used DX7) and then grab some lunch.
After lunch is a series of elementary string classes and then orchetsra rehearsal at Garrison Theatre tonight. Whew!

I think Mondays are a little too frantic for me; maybe Mondays on sabbatical will slow down a bit...

Financial planning

I guess "it takes money to make money" is true, or you need to be willing to lose some of what you've got big-time... Having done our 2009 taxes we're now filling out forms before talking to a financial/retirement planner tomorrow. After the big stock bust last year (or Dec. 2008 anyway) we lost total faith in the stock market and plopped everything in "high interest" bank accounts. Seems the best we can do is maybe 2% and so now we're lookin' to "bite the bullet" and investigate investment options. While we don't expect big gains, it would be nice to look at semi-retirement (for both of us) when Xandie finishes her first 4 years of college. We've talked to "portfolio managers" and they take a very big chunk out of your gains and so now we're looking into "fee-only planners". Don't have any answers at this point, but I sure hope we can protect what we have and at the minimum keep up with inflation...sigh!

Spring forward

(last spring at the Claremont Depot)

The clocks have been set forward (I can't even tell you how many that would be for this household) and Spring officiallly begins this Saturday. Geoff is on his break from the colleges this week, but X's and mine is not until April and so I have a severe case of spring fever at the moment. Unlike last year, I'm not planting so much as I'm tending to what's there and trying to see where I can minimalize watering and maintanence. I'm especially enjoying the morning birdsong and observing new plant growth; a time of renewal for all.

A "normal weekend"

We seem to be having a  "normal weekend" at last; no concerts or overwhelming workloads carrying over into our days of catch up/rest. 

Today we're off to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to meet up with a prof. and her grandaughter from Christchurch, New Zealand. She has previously assisted other HMC profs on sabbatical there and we are hoping that she'll be helpful in our case with both info and connections. I'm especially interested in the school system for Xandie's sake and opportunities for me to study/teach on a visitor's visa. Geoff shouldn't have problems as he'll be the invited guest lecturer/researcher.

French music

My ex-next door neighbor is the high school choral director. He had a problem finding cellists to play in his chamber singers concert and asked if I would help out, so of course I said, "yes". Turned out it was the Faure Requium ...a gorgeous, lush French piece which requires solo violin, 4 violas, 1 bass, 2 horns, harp, organ, timpani and  2 cellos. It also turned out that I was going to be the only, lonely cello player. Taking both parts home (one rehearsal/play concert situation) I determined which cello part was more prominent and alternated parts depending on the movement. In the end it went well for the choir, the director, soloists, and the chamber orchestra, but I sure wish the other cello was there.

Spring cleaning?

Looking ahead to daylight savings and the official start of Spring! 

Boy, do I have spring cleaning and clearing-out projects on my mental "to do" list; especially with a sabbatical around the corner. My personal favorite is permission to rent a dumpster. It's the only time (once every 6-7 years) I can get my family to throw anything away. Then there is the spring yard sale when the neighbors always seem to be inspired by my "urge to purge" myself of extra junk and so it becomes a block sale.  Xandie usually decides to sell 1 or 2 of her books and a few toys to generate some personal income and Geoff usually says "whatever" allowing me to rid ourselves of a reseasonable amount of stuff without too much resistance (I live with two major pack-rats). The beauty of it all is that because we're packing everything up for a year there's no incentive to go out and buy any new stuff until we return!

Looking up and on

OK, life is looking up and better today! 

The air is especially clear after an overnight rain shower, my grades have been sent/received and ready for distribution and now I can move on to the next round of stuff to do. 

Music, for one, is definitely in the air: coaching jr. high strings this a.m., then adult cello lesson 'til lunch, LA Phil field trip letter to finanlize, Faure Requium part to look over before tomorrow night and then teach two string classes this afternoon before picking up X-girl after her art class, after which a make-up cello lesson is coming at 6:45 pm.

e-grading

Well so far, not so good ! I think using LINUX on a mac using open office trying to talk to microsoft word is not gonna be a go.... I can input everything but don't seem to be able to export in any way or fashion. Grrrr!!!  I'll guess I have to wait for my personal computer doctor to get home or print out all my progress reports at the house and then try to figure out how to get an efile to the district office..... glad I have until Friday.

I hate this stuff when it doesn't go smoothly :~(

Life off-line

Our server has been repaired after 2 weeks of "life off-line" on the house machine. Funny how quickly one becomes dependent on technology and how panic sets in when it suddenly disappears on you. Of course "it" just happened to die when Geoff was out of town, I had close to 100 progress reports to submit and it's the first time music grades have gone "electronic" to boot. (Good pun, there!)  So now, cross fingers/knock on wood/make a sign of the cross, things are back to normal on the home front and life can continue as I currently know it.

No place like home... (birthplace, anyway)

San Francisco (view from Alcatraz)

What a great reunion we had to celebrate the anniversary of my mom's 100th birthday! My sister and I cooked up a plan based on the premise that had Mom made it to 100, we would have planned a worthy celebration. And so, our families met up for a long weekend and celebrated in "Crandall-style" (a little quirky and lots of fun). Here are a few pieces of evidence:

Havin' a few in North Beach 

                      Looking a little "jet-lagged" at  The Tonga Room

Ta da :~)

Charlotte, Pat, Suzanne and Brandon

The happy (and relieved) music teachers

(photo: Xandie)

"All's well that ends well"; and actually, the beginning and middle went very well, too. The kids did a terrific job (as usual), most of the details were worked out ahead of time, and I felt that everything was under control and a good representation of what a successful string program should look and sound like. 

For the record:

Elementary Beginning Strings

French Folk Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Traditional

Old MacDonald Had a Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U.S. Folk Song

Mozart Melody and Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Traditional

Elementary String Orchestra

English Morris Dance . . . . . . . . . . . Traditional/arr. Noah Klauss

La Rejouissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G.F. Handel/arr. Richard Meyer

Sneakin’Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Van Ryswyk

Dragon Slayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rob Grice

El Roble String Orchestra

Overture to William Tell . . . . . . .G. Rossini, arr. Sandra Dackow

Emperor Waltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. Strauss, arr. Merle J. Isaac

Dance of the Tumblers . . . . . .  . . . . . . N. Rimsky-Korsakoff,arr. Sandra Dackow

The winter spectacle (concerts, that is)

Today is the first of two district-wide elementary winter music concerts; strings tonight, band tomorrow. This year we have about 175 strings and well over 200 band students.  The enrolment numbers continue to grow and even with budget concerns we have somehow been able to not only survive, but thrive!

Concerts are always free and open to the public; Feb. 16 and 17 at 7 pm in the El Roble Intermediate School Gym, Claremont, CA.

Valentines pie party

Well, it was a beautiful day and we did make it to the bird fest this morning (at least 2 out of 3 of us anyway). After lunch we went to a pie party at a dear violinist neighbor's home. It seems her renter (a college student) has a friend who is a pie baker and he wanted to present a pie-tasting event. Boy, was it ever yummy and what a "sweet idea" to hold it on Valentine's Day. 

2 out of 3 (birdwatching for Cornell)

Mornings are certainly a more active time for bird-watching. I didn't see/hear many more species but I did see greater numbers! Our most prolific visitors from the Cornell lab "urban bird list" are: house finch, house sparrow, mourning dove, and American crow. There was also a western scrub jay sighting during the 10-minute observation window but they are not on the list. The local botanic garden is hosting a birdwatch on Valentine's Day. Maybe I'll get in on that bird count too.

Migrate to the Garden

Sunday, February 14

10 am - 3pm

• Count our bird citizens - participate in a nationwide bird count
• Bird I.D. - Hoot's Who?
• Games, Crafts & Activities

Get on the wire (909) 625-8767, ext 224

Admission fees apply:
$8 - adults
$6 - seniors/students
$4 - fledglings aged 3-12
Free - RSABG Members

It really does take a village

 We have a wonderful community of 'music in our schools' supporters. Both music vendors who handle instrument rentals locally, J. Brown Violin Shop and Styles Music, donated gift certificates for our winter concert raffles next week. Then when I went to pick up two soft cello cases from the village shoe repair he knocked $10 off the cost for me. These are just a few of the reasons why I love our Village!

Facebook frustration!

I guess the news of the week is the tweaking of Facebook and how many people are reaching the boiling point of frustration while trying to understand why it's "better".  Just when I thought I had things pretty much figured out they had to go and change it!

(Im going back to the Lite version)